How Tennessee Williams' 'Streetcar' spawned a generation of imitators

The greatness of "A Streetcar Named Desire" -- and here we're talkng about the 1951 screen version -- has rendered it into a magnificent temptation. Few films have proved as culturally pervasive. Fewer still have found their way into so many other films-- whether as deliberate borrowings, via semi-conscious thematic filters, or through outright spoof and parody.

Blanche DuBois, played by Vivien Leigh in the film version of "A Streetcar Named Desire."

He began with "The Sound and the Fury," Martin Ritt's flawed, fascinating 1959 drama that starred Margaret Leighton and Yul Brenner. Considering that Faulkner's novel was published in 1931, it would seem to dash any notion of the film version borrowing from "Streetcar." Yet as DiLeo pointed out, the key is realizing that Ritt's movie "bears little resemblance to the book." Instead, as we watch Leighton's fading-beauty character drift into view, the links to the 1951 screen "Streetcar" become more and more apparent.

"Like Blanche, she is very fragile in a pathetic kind of way," DiLeo remarked. Add Brynner's menacing, dismissive tone (and a woozy score by Alex North, who'd composed the music for "Streetcar"), and the parallels are striking, if not a little weird.

Weirder still was "Storm Warning," completed in late 1950 (just before "Streetcar") but sourced by the same studio, Warner Brothers. DiLeo argued that it was likely they were shot successively, sufficuently proximate for elements to mix, though not precisely match. So in "Storm Warning," Steve Cochran plays the Stanley-like sexual lout, Doris Day his Stellaesque wife, and Ginger Rogers her visiting sister, standing in for Blanche.

Author John DiLeo

"Storm Warning" (which featured Ronald Reagan in a subsidiary good-guy role) "takes the modern framework of 'Streetcar' and grafts it onto old Warner Brothers social issue (films) of the 1930s," DiLeo said. "So what's the story in a nutshell? 'Streetcar' meets the Klan." Unlike "Streetcar," however, "this is another movie that nobody saw and nobody liked," DiLeo added, "so what's the point of coming out first?"

From here DiLeo segued to "Look back in Anger" (1959), in which Richard Burton "is in the Stanley slot, and Claire Bloom is in the Blanche slot. And in this case, it's not a sister that moves in, but the wife's best friend."

One has scenes set in an orchid hothouse; the other in a tropical jungle. In each, DiLeo maintained, "the natural world -- with all its voluptuousness and uncontrolability -- is creeping into the civilized world, and must be dealt with."

After these came a trio of spoof scenes, taken from "Sleeper" (1973), "Next Stop, Greenwich Village" (1976) and "Death Becomes Her" (1992; which references not "Streetcar" but "Sweet Bird of Youth"). They weren't nearly as intriguing as what DiLeo had presented earlier -- though it's always a wicked hoot to behold Woody Allen channeling Blanche opposite Diane Keaton's Stanley.

"I'm not accusing anyone of plagarism," DiLeo insisted with a grin at the start of Saturday's session. Just acknowledging that the kindness of strangers is nothing next to the shamelessness -- or at least, eagerness -- of movie directors.

Where: It is based at the Hotel Monteleone, 214 Royal
St., with events at 11 nearby venues.

Admission: Most events require a panel pass ($75) or a
one-day pass ($30). Some require a separate purchase. For tickets, call
504.581.1144 or visit the festival website.

The greatness of "A Streetcar Named Desire" -- and here we're talkng about the 1951 screen version -- has rendered it into a magnificent temptation. Few films have proved as culturally pervasive. Fewer still have found their way into so many other films-- whether as deliberate borrowings, via semi-conscious thematic filters, or through outright spoof and parody.

John DiLeo

Perhaps nobody appreciates this as keenly as John DiLeo. The author of "Tennessee Williams: His Essential screen Actors" returned Saturday to the 2012 Tennessee Williams Literary Festival, bearing a fistful of film excerpts that testified how "Streetcar" and its seething triumverate of Blanche, Stanley and Stella are magnificent, irresistible film fodder.

He began with "The Sound and the Fury," Martin Ritt's flawed, fascinating 1959 drama that starred Margaret Leighton and Yul Brenner. Considering that Faulkner's novel was published in 1931, it would seem to dash any notion of the film version borrowing from "Streetcar." Yet as DiLeo pointed out, the key is realizing that Ritt's movie "bears little resemblance to the book." Instead, as we watch Leighton's fading-beauty character drift into view, the links to the 1951 screen "Streetcar" become more and more apparent.

"Like Blanche, she is very fragile in a pathetic kind of way," DiLeo remarked. Add Brynner's menacing, dismissive tone (and a woozy score by Alex North, who'd composed the music for "Streetcar"), and the parallels are striking, if not a little weird.

Weirder still was "Storm Warning," completed in late 1950 (just before "Streetcar") but sourced by the same studio, Warner Brothers. DiLeo argued that it was likely they were shot successively, sufficuently proximate for elements to mix, though not precisely match. So in "Storm Warning," Steve Cochran plays the Stanley-like sexual lout, Doris Day his Stellaesque wife, and Ginger Rogers her visiting sister, standing in for Blanche.

"Storm Warning" (which featured Ronald Reagan in a subsidiary good-guy role) "takes the modern framework of 'Streetcar' and grafts it onto old Warner Brothers social issue (films) of the 1930s," DiLeo said. "So what's the story in a nutshell? 'Streetcar' meets the Klan." Unlike "Streetcar," however, "this is another movie that nobody saw and nobody liked," DiLeo added, "so what's the point of coming out first?"

From here DiLeo segued to "Look back in Anger" (1959), in which Richard Burton "is in the Stanley slot, and Claire Bloom is in the Blanche slot. And in this case, it's not a sister that moves in, but the wife's best friend."

One has scenes set in an orchid hothouse; the other in a tropical jungle. In each, DiLeo maintained, "the natural world -- with all its voluptuousness and uncontrolability -- is creeping into the civilized world, and must be dealt with."

After these came a trio of spoof scenes, taken from "Sleeper" (1973), "Next Stop, Greenwich Village" (1976) and "Death Becomes Her" (1992; which references not "Streetcar" but "Sweet Bird of Youth"). They weren't nearly as intriguing as what DiLeo had presented earlier -- though it's always a wicked hoot to behold Woody Allen channeling Blanche opposite Diane Keaton's Stanley.

"I'm not accusing anyone of plagarism," DiLeo insisted with a grin at the start of Saturday's session. Just acknowledging that the kindness of strangers is nothing next to the shamelessness -- or at least, eagerness -- of movie directors.